


Injustice

by mistr3ssquickly



Series: The Brute Force universe [2]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: But they do tolerate each other from time to time, I wouldn't go so far as to claim these two are friends, M/M, Side Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28925031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistr3ssquickly/pseuds/mistr3ssquickly
Summary: In which Kallus discovers that everyone knows he’s in love with Zeb, except for maybe Zeb himself.
Relationships: Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios
Series: The Brute Force universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2121480
Comments: 6
Kudos: 81





	Injustice

**Injustice**

_a Brute Force side-story_

Ezra flops down on the grass next to Kallus, sprawled out in a gangling spill of limbs he’s still not grown into since his last growth-spurt, the sparse sprinkling of facial hair he’d barely sported when Kallus first met him now a solid shadow, close-shorn though it must have been, earlier in the day. Something’s bothering him, his turmoil radiating from him as clearly as a holoprojection, but armchair therapy isn’t Kallus’ strong suit, so he leaves him be, figures Ezra might just need to be near someone as he thinks, not actually need someone to — 

“It’s not fair, you know,” Ezra says, just as Kallus is going back to the manifest in his hands he'd been reviewing.

“Life, or something more specific,” Kallus says without looking up.

“You tried to _kill_ us. A _bunch_ of times.”

“That I did.”

“And now Zeb’s in _love_ with you.”

Kallus lowers the datapad. “I beg your pardon.”

“You’re a former Imperial who tried to kill him and he’s in love with you anyway,” Ezra repeats.

“So you’ve said. Assuming that your assertion is true, your point would be ...?”

Ezra hefts a weighty sigh heavenward, lifting one arm to drape over his eyes in a fantastic display of teenaged melancholy. “Kanan’s supposed to be a Jedi, and Jedi aren't supposed to have any attachments, but he and Hera are in love,” he says. “He even asked her to marry him once. Did you know that? Got her dad’s blessing and everything before he found out that’s not how they do it on Ryloth. Only reason they didn’t go through with it is ‘cause of. Y’know. The war and stuff.”

Kallus _didn’t_ know that, but it brings a smile to his face all the same. Kanan Jarrus is something of a private man, not given to showing too much emotion at any given time, but his affection for his captain is impossible to miss. “The war _has_ put a damper on a great many things, yes,” he says.

“Hell, if Chop were programmed to be in love, he’d probably be sticking all sorts of stuff into AP-5’s ports,” Ezra grouses, as if he hadn’t heard.

Kallus doesn't laugh at the mental image that forms in his mind, but it takes effort. "What, if I may ask again, is your point?"

Another sigh answers him. "Every Spectre's got somebody,” Ezra says. “Zeb. Kanan. Hera. Chop. But when I try to be _anything_ more than a crewmate with Sabine, she tells me to go to hell.”

 _Oh._ Kallus has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep his expression schooled into a frown, just in case Ezra lifts his arm off of his eyes. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s just not _fair.”_

“Life generally isn’t.”

Ezra lifts his arm just enough to point a surprisingly vicious glare Kallus’ way, then puts his arm back where it was, punctuating his lack of response with another sigh.

Kallus leaves him to his lovelorn turmoil, returning his attention to the work before him. Ezra gives him two minutes’ peace before sighing again, moving his arm from his eyes to drape across his chest instead. For all his melodrama, he _does_ seem genuinely upset, the pain of unrequited love familiar, drawing memory unbidden to envelop what attention Kallus _had_ been giving his work.

“I suppose,” he says after a few minutes have passed, taking with them his attention to his work, “you might consider enlisting with the Empire, then focusing your efforts almost entirely on capturing Sabine, and all of her compatriots.” He angles his gaze down to enjoy the _immediate_ look of horror his words earn him, betrayal and fury bright in Ezra’s eyes. “Given your prevailing theory that Garazeb is in love with me, one could hypothesize that my method was effective, and replicable.”

Ezra gapes at him like a fish pulled from a stream, only a squeaking breath voicing his absolute _horror_ at the notion. Kallus offers him his very best Imperial bastard smile, the kind that usually costs him a sparring match against the boy.

 _”Or,”_ he says, “you could just be grateful that you have such a wonderful crewmate as Sabine Wren, even if she’s disinterested in taking her relationship with you any further, personally.”

Ezra pushes himself up on his elbows. “Are you making a _joke?”_

“That _was_ my intention, yes.”

“Well don’t. You’re bad at it.”

“I apologise.”

Ezra sits up a little more, pulling his knees to his chest and hugging them. “I knew Zeb liked you, you know. After Bahryn. He said he didn’t, but I knew.”

“You knew long before I did, then.”

Ezra rolls his eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“As I have told you before, I stand to gain nothing by lying to you, about this or anything else.”

“Well yeah, _duh,_ but — but you saved Sabine,” Ezra says, “and you told her to tell Zeb that you two were even. She told _everyone_ what you’d said. And then you started helping us out and you defected to our cause and —”

“Not for Garazeb,” Kallus tells him, swallowing a sigh. Unsurprising that Lyste and Ezra would have the same flavor of logic, but — “What I did, I did for moral reasons. I had to come to terms with the fact that I would never be able to erase the things I did while serving the Empire, but I _could_ choose not to do them any longer, and to lend support as best I could to the cause that fell within what I believed to be _right._ Both morally and politically.”

“Because Zeb told you to ask questions, yeah, I know,” Ezra says, rolling his eyes. “He told us _all about it.”_

“He saved more than just my life on that moon,” Kallus says, “but that is _not_ why I fell in love with him.”

“Why did you, then?”

Kallus sighs. “I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve figured that out, myself.”

Ezra frowns, looking at Kallus long enough to raise goosebumps down the back of Kallus' neck, before flopping back onto the grass, treating the clouds to his newly refreshed ire. "Well _that_ doesn’t do me any good," he grumbles. "Dunno why I even bothered asking."

“I would offer that it is always good to try asking questions, even if you don’t hear the answer you’re hoping to hear,” Kallus says, “but I suspect you’ve already heard as much, or some variation on the theme, from your Jedi master.”

“Ugh, yeah. Like a _million_ times,” Ezra says.

“Then I’ll not bring it to a million and one.”

“Thanks,” Ezra grumbles, but he sticks around, staring up at the clouds until duty (and Ezra’s rumbling stomach) compel both of them back to base.

This takes place somewhere in the middle of chapter 6. Kallus tells Zeb the truth the evening after this conversation, in case you're wondering.


End file.
